Choosing a health and social services centre

As a public health care client, you are free to choose your basic health care provider (health amd social services centre) from any location in the country. In order to change your health and social services centre, you must provide written notification to both your current and new health and social services centre. Responsibility for your care will be transferred to the new health social services centre within three weeks at the latest after your notification has been received. Additional information about local healthcare services and possibly also a form for changing your health and social services centre can be found on your wellbeing services county's website or will be provided by your health and social services centre.

Before changing your health centre, find out how and where the services are actually provided. If you switch your health and social sercvices centre to another one, all your primary health care services will also change. They include the child welfare and maternity clinics, dental care, mental health and substance abuse services, and short-term ward care at the health and social services centre.

You cannot choose where you will be provided with school and student health care, or long-term institutional care. Nor can you choose to have home nursing provided anywhere other than in your wellbeing services county. 

You can change your health and social seervices centre no more often than once a year.

Include the following personal information in your notification:

• full name
• personal identity code
• address
• telephone number.

Remember to also include

• the wellbeing services county that is currently responsible for your care 
• your current health and social services centre
• the new wellbeing services county you have chosen to be responsible for your care 
• the new health and social services centre you have chosen.

You may also state the reason for switching your health and social services centre. If you submit your notification on paper, include your signature and the current date.

Submit your notification to your new health and social services centre. Remember to also submit a copy of it to your current health and social services centre. The same notice can only be used to notify about the change in health and social services centres for one person. This means that you will need to submit a separate notification for each family member.

If you have changed your health and social services centre, you will remain as a client of the new health and social services centre for as long as you want. Should you wish to return to your old health centre, you must issue a written notification. Some wellbeing services counties offer their primary health care clients greater freedom of choice than that prescribed in the Health Care Act and may allow their clients to change their health and social services centre more often than once a year.

You can only choose one health and social services centre at a time, and the selection covers all basic health care services. In other words, you cannot pick and choose where to visit a doctor, where to use the laboratory services, and so on. However, some wellbeing services counties wish to offer greater freedom of choice than what is prescribed in the Health Care Act. Therefore, you should visit the website of our municipality or your health centre to find out what the agreement on selecting health care services is in the area of your municipality of joint municipal authority.

As a patient, you are not required to transfer your information to the new place of treatment. When you visit the facility for the first time, you will be informed about the joint register and the fact that information can be transferred between the operating units without separate consent. You can also prohibit the disclosure of your information to the new health and social services centre, in which case you are responsible for providing it to the health care professional treating you.

Client fee for outpatient care at a health centre can in many wellbeing services counties be paid annually. An annual fee is valid for one calendar year in the health and social services centre to which the payment was made. In other words, if you change your health and social services centre over the course of a calendar year and you have already paid the previous health and social services centre, you must also make the payment to the new one. If you do not pay the annual fee, you will be charged for accessing the services in accordance with the Decree on Client Fees in Social Welfare and Health Care.

Wellbeing services counties can provide health care services to their residents in very differing manners.. You should therefore find out what services your wellbeing services county and health and social services centre provide. Some wellbeing services counties wish to offer their primary healthcare clients greater freedom of choice than that prescribed in the Health Care Act. For example, clients may change their health and social services centre more often than once a year. Dental care and maternity and child health clinic services can also be chosen separately.  

Medical supplies and their distribution are always the responsibility of the health and social services centre in charge of your care. If you become a client of a different health and social services centre, any medical supplies you need in the future will be supplied from that health and social services centre. Medical supplies mean equipment used, for example, in the treatment of diabetes.

As a rule, your social and health services centre changes when you move to a different wellbeing services county. If you want to remain as a client of the previous social and health services centre, you have to submit a written notification to your previous centre as well as to the centre that you would otherwise become a client of when you move. Submit the notification early enough, at least three weeks before your next health centre visit. 

If you move within a wellbeing services county, ask your wellbeing services county whether you have to submit a notification about changing or not changing the social and health services centre. 

As a rule, you cannot change your social and health services centre until after one year has passed from when you previously chose it. However, you can choose your place of treatment again within less than one year if the reason for it is moving to live in a different place. 

The nationwide freedom of choice in healthcare does not apply to Åland. A person who resides on the Finnish mainland cannot choose to be treated in Åland. Correspondingly, a person living in Åland cannot choose public healthcare services that are located on the mainland.